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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2886 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

weak or absent. Consumers paid for the inefficiencies of the extra generation, and the environment paid as well. The benefits claimed for the national market are not pipedreams. The fact is that the reforms provided for in this Bill are not starting from scratch. Victoria and New South Wales have broken up their previously monolithic State-controlled industries and set up power markets that are very similar to the national market arrangements. Both States have shown that competitive electricity markets work and deliver the promised benefits to industry and to consumers.

Already in the ACT, consumers have seen the benefit of reductions in New South Wales transmission tariffs now that this monopoly is regulated. Now that Victoria and New South Wales have combined their markets, ACTEW has been able to shop around for the best priced insurance products to guarantee stable, low pricing for its customers. The national electricity market will replace and enhance the existing arrangements in Victoria and New South Wales.

The operation of the national electricity market is to be governed by two instruments - the first instrument being the National Electricity Law. This gives force and support to rules contained in the second instrument - the National Electricity Code. The National Electricity Law will ensure that the rules of the market are consistent and enforceable across all of the participating jurisdictions. In turn, this will optimise the national market's efficiency and effectiveness and, particularly, assure that the market has an accountable and stable governance regime.

The Electricity (National Scheme) Bill, which I am introducing today, provides that the National Electricity Law, enacted as a schedule to South Australian legislation passed in July 1996, will apply as a law of the ACT. Mr Speaker, the parliaments of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland have already passed legislation to apply the National Electricity Law. The application legislation of the other jurisdictions is close to identical to the terms of this ACT Bill.

I will now turn to the major points of the National Electricity Law and the code. Part 2 of the National Electricity Law provides for the approval of a National Electricity Code by the relevant Ministers of each participating jurisdiction. The law also provides that certain constitutional provisions of the code, which are classed as protected provisions, can be amended only with the unanimous approval of the jurisdictions' relevant Ministers. The code will define the terms of participation in the market for generators, transmission and distribution network owners, service providers, system operators, retailers, other market participants and those customers who are large enough to want to buy their electricity wholesale.

Specific chapters of the code will deal with connection and access to networks, rules for operating the wholesale electricity market, operating transmission and distribution services, metering, the security of the interconnected power system, and administering the code itself. A fundamental aspect of the code is that all electricity is traded through a central pool. Generators bid power into the pool; retailers buy power from it. The price of that power will vary throughout the day.

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